Established Businesses and Growth

Throughout the years, the hospitality industry has grown through a series of transformations. While many industries struggled with unemployment in 2011, new growth in the hospitality industry sparked a boom in the number of jobs created and economic opportunities. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics the leisure / hospitality sector was second only to health care in the number of jobs created in 2011.[1]

One key reason for this growth has been the rise of the gaming industry across the United States. Today, many states have either legalized or begun the debate to legalize casinos in their state. What was once an industry isolated in Las Vegas, NV has now expanded in some form to 38 states. As a clear sign of this growth, in 2012, the Chicagoland area is now the third largest market by revenue according to the American Gaming Association.[2]

This rise also creates a number of economic opportunities for firms in the technology, manufacturing, and services industries. According to the American Gaming Association, “direct economic output by the gaming equipment manufacturing and technology sector rose to $13.0 billion in 2012 — an all-time high and 5.7 percent increase compared to 2011 figures. Approximately 31,200 workers were directly employed in the sector during 2012, earning $2.3 billion in salaries and wages.”[3]

Food and beverage firms as well as hotel management firms are also in line for expanding opportunities as these segments account for approximately one third of gaming revenue.

The holiday season is quickly approaching, and the time is now to make sure you get the most of your marketing efforts to help secure sales success in the coming months. Here are a few budget-friendly ideas to help get you started.

Social Media Contests

If your small business has a social media presence, contests on Facebook and Twitter are often a popular way highlight your brand and engage with customers, reminding them that your product or service is available – and a potentially great gift idea. With a few rules, a clever hashtag and incentive such as a prize or discount on your offerings, you can drum up excitement about – and draw people in to – your business.

Extra Appeal for Your Loyal Customers

Take this time to make your loyal customers feel extra special – it may come back to you by way of additional business and referrals. Without breaking the bank, you can provide special offers, sneak previews, free shipping or secret sales.

That’s the core objective of BusinessUSA. Approaching two years since its launch in early 2012, BusinessUSA was created to provide businesses a better entryway into the host of programs and opportunities the federal government has to offer. Too often, interactions with the government are burdensome, frustrating, and confusing. BusinessUSA aims to fix that by providing a single point of access to those programs and resources relevant to business owners and exporters.

It is BusinessUSA’s mission to ensure that potential and existing business owners have access to programs and opportunities that can help them grow and succeed. Agencies and Departments from across the federal government have collaborated on the site to ensure that users have access to many programs and resources they might not otherwise be able to find, as well as complementary resources from other providers. The site offers easy to use, step by step tools for starting or growing a business, starting or expanding exporting operations, getting disaster assistance, finding opportunities, and more. BusinessUSA is also a place business owners can go to get information about the new health care law.

Over 100 experts in innovation, entrepreneurship, and investment sought to educate and empower those who attended the Kingonomics Conference at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, DC, on August 23.

The conference, which was held in conjunction with the 50th Anniversary of the March on Washington, included panel discussions, economic “boot camps,” and even an official casting call for ABC’s Shark Tank, a TV show where self-made multi-millionaire and billionaires give budding entrepreneurs the chance to potentially secure business deals that could make them millions. “This event gave entrepreneurs the opportunity to access micro-loans, meet angel and super angel investors and connect with venture capital firms,” said Dr. Rodney Sampson, coordinator of the Kingonomics Conference.

Public data is a valuable national asset whose value is multiplied when it is made easily accessible to the public. For example, the public release of weather data from government satellites and ground stations generated an entire economic sector that today includes the Weather Channel, commercial agricultural advisory services, and new insurance options. Similarly, the decision by the U.S. Government to make the Global Positioning System (GPS), once reserved for military use, available for civilian and commercial access, gave rise to GPS-powered innovations ranging from aircraft navigation systems to precision farming to location-based apps, contributing tens of billions of dollars in annual value to the American economy.

The Department of Commerce makes available to small businesses economic data that are important for key business decisions such as where to locate, where to manufacture a product and where to sell that product.

For example, AmFor Electronics, a second-generation, family-owned manufacturer in Portland, Oregon, is the market leader in the manufacturing of alternator and starter testers, which are sold to auto parts stores, auto repair shops, and alternator and starter rebuilders. Using Commerce data like that available in the Assess Costs Everywhere tool, AmFor decided to enter the wire harness sector and chose to locate their manufacturing facility domestically rather than overseas because it provides a shorter turnaround times with fewer defects that ultimately leads to a reduction in costs. These successes have translated into new customers and the hiring of 50 employees.

Direct Line for American Business: Market Information U.S. Business Can Use

“Let me be very clear: more than ever, foreign policy is economic policy. One of the best things our diplomatic presences abroad can do is to advance our economic interests and help create jobs here at home.” – Secretary of State John Kerry

With 96 percent of global consumers living outside the United States, exports are a great way to increase jobs and income here at home. Successful exporting requires accurate and up-to-the minute information on opportunities and market conditions abroad.

Direct Line to American Business

Direct Line lets U.S. business hear directly from our Ambassadors and our economic and commercial experts at over 260 Embassies and Consulates in over 190 countries. Our staffs are trained to identify promising market sectors and to help U.S. exporters capitalize on new opportunities.

Are you a woman who is ready to start or expand a small business? Now’s a good time to take that first step, with help from a U.S. Small Business Administration series of four web chats during October, which is also National Women’s Small Business Month.

Women-owned businesses are one of the fastest growing segments of the small business community. Today, about 30 percent of small businesses are owned by women, compared to about 5 percent in 1970.

Hello from Chicago, where I just wrapped up our most recent stop on ITA’s STOPFakes.gov Road Shows tour. The Road Shows have been a hit across the U.S. After a whirlwind tour to eight cities, my colleagues and I have met with hundreds of U.S. companies, educating them on how to protect and enforce their intellectual property rights (IPR) in the U.S. and in foreign markets.

At each Road Show, our team of experts covered the basics—how to protect your company’s patents, trademarks, and copyrights—and advised on protection for online content and useful law enforcement resources to seize counterfeit products. We also offered free one-on-one consultations for U.S. companies at the end of each session.

STOPfakes.gov was launched to serve as a one-stop shop for U.S. government tools and resources on intellectual property rights (IPR). The federal agencies behind STOPfakes.gov have developed a number of resources to educate and assist businesses, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), as well as consumers, government officials, and the general public.

The U.S. Small Business Administration is seeking comment on two proposed rules published this week in the Federal Register that would revise the small business size definitions for businesses in three North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) Sectors: Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing, and Hunting; Finance and Insurance; and Management of Companies and Enterprises. The proposed revisions reflect changes in marketplace conditions.

The SBA proposed increasing 11 size standards in the Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing and Hunting Sector. Up to 7,500 more firms in this sector would become eligible for SBA loan and federal procurement programs, if adopted.

SBA also proposed increasing 32 revenue-based size standards and 5 asset-based size standards in the Finance and Insurance Sector. In addition, SBA proposed increasing two size standards in the Management of Companies and Enterprises Sector. Lastly, SBA proposed to change how it measures the size of International Trade Financing firms from average assets to average revenues.